The general population is welcoming but the criminal elements who will look for an excuse to start trouble isn't. Did you stay with the indigenous people or were you staying on the mainland?
If you don't mind me asking, why were you there? I've never got a chance to explore a lot of the interior because it was deemed unsafe. We only made it to the rodeo a few times. It's an amazingly beautiful place.
I wanted to see the Kaieteur falls and I was backpacking through Alaska to Ishuaia, so not much money. First I enter Guyana from the south. Tried to hitchhike without much luck so I ended taking a microvan. the less than 300 km took around 16 hours because we had to wait for the ferries to start the day. Saw a Jaguar on the road at 4 am. during a road checking I befriended an american girl from the peace corps and she game me her address as I didn't have a place to sleep. when I arrived in Georgetown, I when to the only restaurant I saw and my laptop charger didn't work and it was the only way to check the address of my new friend. Luckly, a woman had the same charger and I was able to charge it, I asked for food and start to speak with the woman from the charger and explain me about guayana and me about my trip and my goals in guyana. After I was done with the food and the address, I went to pay and it resulted that she was the owner of the restaurant and she didn't charge me. After I went to my new friend, she showed me around and kept my things while I was going to the Mahdia region to see the falls. I hitchhike to close to Mahdia and spend the night beside the road. No cars at night and no city ligths. Amazing stars. Next day hitchhike to arrive to Mahdia. Along the way I helped the vehicle that provide me help to run some hoses in their cabin and they brought me to Mahdia and along the way we had to "reconstruct" a small bridge where the boards were off. Once in Mahdia, I asked directions to go to the river to try to go to a mining site to start walking to the falls. I walked 10 km for a none transitted dirt road and luckly a car passed by and gave me ride. I paid the same people to jump in their canoe to go up river to the mining camp. Along the way, several illegal miners polluting the river with their shitty rig-boats. Once in the mining camp (gold and diamonds, and it was a little shack and little more) I asked directions to go to the next mining camp that was very close by of the Falls. they told me that I would need to cross 3 or 4 streams and should take me 5 hours and if the trail would disappear (we are talking full amazon virgin jungle) to not separate form the main river. Aright
I woke up at 6 am and the mining foreman (I was the main attraction of the camp) guide me to the beginning of the trail, but before, a bunch of people came with machetes and cubs and the foreman said, lets go quick. I asked if that was normal as I assumed that the mine had proper ownsership and he said that yes, but that didn't stop them. But usually didn't amount to anything (machetes for feck sake)
I must say that I already read about this route to reach the falls (the other was paying 1000 dollars for a flight and 1000 dollars was 1.5 months backpacking budget for me) and how other people did it and they got lost WITH a guyanese guide. But hey, I am smarter than a local, right?. So I encounter the first very small stream, half a meter wide, I have goretex so I place my foot and I just deeped to my waist....Great. After 30 minutes walk, the trail disappear after 3 minutes towards a swampy-streamy area and I didn't know what to do because I couldn't see the trail after. After some courage I crossed water, pushing away branches and plants. Reached the other side and no trail so I decided to keep walking with the river besides me hoping that the trail would reappear. Never happened. The first day I walked 10 hours crossed about 80 streams half of them walking over fallen trunks or jumping them and half swimming (I brought a plastic bags to cover my backpack with mix results) one stream that was 20 meters wide (all brown murky water), at the middle I saw a snake going towards me and when she reached me it was a fecking trunk which scared the shit out of me. I had many cuts on my legs and arms from the plants that I was pushing away because I am a whitey smart guy that didn't have a machete and proper clothes. I camped in the only clearance I found hoping that it was a signal of civilization as some trees where cleared and there was an abandoned small cabin. Next day it started pouring rain for 3 hours and I walked 5 hours, the 3 raining ones shouting like a madman: "STOP feckING RAINING) I slipped many times, sometimes with my head at centimetres of rocks and trumps that could knock me down and hoping not to break my leg in that shitshow and crossing another 20 streams. The other mining camp didnt appear yet and I only had food (like mostly muesli for energy) and water for 3 days. A very big stream (more like another river) appeared in front of me and I so a shadowy thing at the other side. Maybe it was paranoia and it was nothing, but I jumped in the main river (trying not to get pulled by the current) to have a better viewing of what I had to walk ahead and at least it was 2-3 hours without sight of the a mini waterfall that was supposed to be at the other mining camp. So I decided to go back. After an our of going back, I saw one of the crossings that I crossed 2 hours before, and I saw another way to cross that was easier, and it was. But something stung me on my temple and then another and then another on my arm. I saw a brownish bee and decided to plunge in the river that was at that time, with a 3 meters mini cliff without knowing if it was shallow or not. Was not luckly. I submerged into the water and swam under for a as much as I could and then I had to climb the minicliff through mud and roots. My reflex camara and kindle got fecked because I couldn't protect my backpack with the plastic bag. O well
I walked back to the previous night clearance and went to sleep. Next day I started to walk again but after a short while, as the last day rained so much, the river overflown, so as I couldn't abandon my only point of reference, the river, I found myself walking about 2 hours straight in a swampy area with water at my waist - chest level (I am 1.88) and I could feel all the branches and whatever it was touching my legs and body. My mind was getting crazy thinking about all the documentaries that I have seen so I had to get out of there. I abandoned the river to go to a dry area...I have a good sense of directions after all right? Well, After walking 1 hour, I decided to go to find the river again to locate myself and I couldn't find it for about 2-3 hours. To be honest I was losing my sense of time. And I couldn't find it when I thought I should be find it it in 5-10 minutes. After those 2-3 hours I found another river so I decided to follow it in the hopes that will get me to civilization with the word hope very little. After 30 minutes I recognized a landmark and I realized that I walked in circles and it was the same river but I was going upstream again instead of downstream. the river overflowns was not that bad then and I kept going till I recognized the initial swampy area. I crossed it and cried like a baby.
When I reached the mining camp I told them. Well, I guess I am not as good as you walking around the jungle because one of you told me that it would be 5 hours, I walked 10+5 and didn't reach anyhting. And the guy looked at me and said 5 hours? yeah nah. 5 hours is in the dry season. In the rainy season is 2 days (FFS). I asked for a coke at the shack-bar they had, she told me 25 dollars and I said Pass!. She laughed and she invited me to it. They told me that I was lucky. You can find anacondas that crush your bones...great. I only found several small snakes, big spiders climbing on me and pushed them away panicking but I was alive. Stupid but alive
Next day another canoe brought me back. They could charge me hundreds of dollars and I would pay them but they were honest. I hitchhike my way to georgetown and after recovering at my friend's house for a couple or 3 days I continued my trip to suriname. On a bus, a woman of indian descent chatted with me and asked where I would spend the night and I told her that I didn't know, probably at the ferry terminal or around, whatever I would found. And she invited me at her place. At her place, a humble house with 10 kids and a few other young adults, they invited me to dinner an a space to put my mat. and then I went to Suriname
So yeah, people helped me hitchhiking, with food, with a place to stay and other things. Probably they thought I was crazy on doing what I was doing and they didn't know that I was plain stupid, but they wanted to protect me. So I only can say good things about Guyanese people. And they were always warm in random conversations in the market, shops and so on
